Stuart Clenaghan
Stuart co-founded ESS in 2007 to focus on financing of sustainable forestry and land-use. He is also chair and co-founder of Green Gold Forestry Peru SA, Peru’s largest forest owner with 394,000ha, and one of Latin America’s biggest private sector conservation projects. GGF works in one of the world’s most important and biodiverse habitats – Peru’s Amazon rainforest – and is applying innovative new business models that both help local people thrive and protect Peru’s remarkable fauna and flora for posterity.
Stuart spent 23 years of his career at Lehman Brothers and UBS in capital markets. Since leaving UBS, he has specialised in environmental strategy and finance, both as a private investor and as an adviser to governments, NGOs, and the corporate sector. He strongly believes that low-carbon transition will drive economic growth over the decades to come.
He is a senior fellow of Climate Bonds Initiative and is a trustee of the world’s leading plant conservation body, Botanic Gardens Conservation International, based at Kew. Stuart holds a MA in Natural Sciences from University of Cambridge, and a MSc in Industrial Sociology and Economics from Imperial College, London.
David Shirley
David is a co-founder of ESS. He has held senior positions at Technica, DNV, and KPMG where he was head of Global Sustainability Services. He has more than 30 years’ experience in environmental and social governance, risk management and sustainability reporting and assurance in the energy and natural resource sectors. His principal focus is the enhancement and protection of business performance through integration of sustainability agendas.
David has a BSc from Loughborough University.
Stuart spent 23 years of his career at Lehman Brothers and UBS in capital markets. Since leaving UBS, he has specialised in environmental strategy and finance, both as a private investor and as an adviser to governments, NGOs, and the corporate sector. He strongly believes that low-carbon transition will drive economic growth over the decades to come.
He is a senior fellow of Climate Bonds Initiative and is a trustee of the world’s leading plant conservation body, Botanic Gardens Conservation International, based at Kew. Stuart holds a MA in Natural Sciences from University of Cambridge, and a MSc in Industrial Sociology and Economics from Imperial College, London.
Jacopo Levi Morenos
Jacopo is a co-founder of ESS. He has considerable experience in investing in sustainable forestry and the environmental sector. A former investment banker, he has worked for Baring Brothers, IBJ Intl., Banque Paribas, and from 1996 to 2004, UBS where he was managing director and co-head of marketing fixed-income derivative products. Jacopo has served as adviser to Iwokrama, a 400,000ha rainforest reserve in Guyana.
Jacopo is an Italian national, educated in Italy and the UK.
David Shirley
David has a BSc from Loughborough University.